Method and apparatus for producing operation signals for a motion object, and program product for producing the operation signals

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for providing a motion object with psychological and emotional expressions characterized by simplified processing and reduced control data associated with controlling a series of motions for body groups of the motion object including a fundamental control signal made up of an oscillating numerical value signal representing a psychological state, and a signal representing a body-group motion sequence.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a method of producing operationsignals used to operate an object such as a robot or a characterappearing in video games, which has a body analogous to the body of ahuman being or an animal and performs body actions for viewing bypeople, (hereinafter referred to as a “motion object”), so that theobject automatically behaves with natural and living creature-likeactions in a manner giving emotional expressions as well. Also, thepresent invention relates to an apparatus for producing operationsignals for the motion object, and a program product for producing theoperation signals.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] A series of body actions of a motion object (robot) arecontrolled by outputting operation signal commands to actuators of themotion object. Hitherto, body operation signals for conventional robotsand video game characters have been mostly produced using any of thefollowing methods.

[0005] (1) Method of Copying Motions of a Real Human Being or Animal

[0006] This method is represented by a motion capture system.Specifically, a motion object is operated so as to follow capturedmotions of a real human being or animal, thereby giving natural feelingand emotional expressions to the motions of the object.

[0007] (2) Method of Manually Creating Action Data

[0008] In many cases, action data of a motion object is createdbeforehand by game designers and other persons.

[0009] (3) Method of Not Intending Impression Production and ArtisticEffects of Motions with Direct Purpose

[0010] As an alternative method, motions are designed to achieve anotherpurpose instead of an explicit purpose for causing a motion object tobehave like a living body with emotional expressions. There is also amethod of creating motions in an automatic manner. For example, motionsof forelegs and hind legs of a four-footed robot are automaticallyenlarged to increase amounts of advance. Those artificial motions forpractical purpose are eventually very similar to motions of actualanimals in some cases when visually perceived.

[0011] With the above conventional method (1), however, since the motioncapture is based on identical copying, a difficulty arises in correctionand interruption of motions. In particular, it is difficult to makeinteractive correction (which is required, for example, in environmentincluding complicated configurations of the ground surface or thepresence of an obstacle to correct motions so that the object is avoidedfrom striking against the ground or the obstacle).

[0012] Also, in general, size of data recording real-life motions arelarge. Because those data must be collected and stored beforehand, arepertory of motions capable of being held by a system is alsorestricted. Further, for operating a motion object in imitation of animaginary animal, collected data must be modified for adaptation toindividual cases if the structure and size of the motion object differfrom those of the imaginary animal.

[0013] In the above conventional method (2), since action data createdby designers is also large in size, there occurs a problem similar tothat with the above conventional method (1). The above conventionalmethod (2) also has a disadvantage in that since the action data issubjectively created by the designer, properness of expressed actions isnot theoretically ensured, and a burden for producing actions is imposedon the designer.

[0014] In the above conventional method (3), a manner of controllingpsychological and emotional impressions expressed by actions is not yetrealized.

[0015] In the field of psychology and dance study, there is known theLaban-Bartenieff-Kestenberg theory for correlating the degree andevolution and growth of the psychological states with features of bodyactions. The theories of Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff FundamentalTheory and Kestenberg Movement Analysis (see references: The Mastery ofMovement, Rudolf Laban, Macdonald & Evans, 1960, Body Movement Copingwith the Environment, Irmgard Bartenieff et al., Gordon and BreachPublishers, 1980, The Meaning of Movement, Janet Kestenberg Amighi etal., Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1999, and Making connections—TotalBody Integration through Bartenieff Fundamentals Peggy Hackney, Gordonand Breach Publishers 1998) have been primarily used to estimate humanpsychological state from human movements. By utilizing that theory notfor emotion estimation but for emotion expression, the inventors havepreviously proposed a basic idea for automatically producing movementsof a motion body, which allow people to feel emotional and psychologicalexpressions from body actions of the motion body (Japanese PatentApplication Publication No. 2001-34305 entitled “Controller of OperationBody”).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0016] With the view of improving such a basic idea, it is an object ofthe present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performingbody actions of a motion object, in which fundamental control signalsare generated for controlling a series of motions of body groups definedcorresponding to plural body components of the motion object, the pluralbody components being connected through joints with multi-degrees offreedom, and the generated fundamental control signals are distributedfor supplying operation signals to the respective body components,thereby causing the motion object to perform body actions as desired.

[0017] Also, the present invention provides a method and apparatus forproducing operation signals for a motion object, in which a firstfundamental control signal representing tonus rhythm is an oscillatingnumerical value signal, and a second fundamental control signalrepresenting predetermined motions of the body components of the motionobject is a signal of a body-group motion sequence, the firstfundamental control signal and the second fundamental control signalbeing combined with each other and distributed at a distribution ratioin accordance with the body-group motion sequence, whereby the operationsignals are outputted to the respective body components while reflectingthe body-group motion sequence signal and expressing a virtualpsychological state as well. The second fundamental control signal canbe set depending on a degree of imaginary evolution or growth of themotion object in a role of a living thing.

[0018] Further, the present invention provides a method and apparatusfor producing operation signals for a motion object, in which, forcontrolling actions of a motion object presented as a two- orthree-dimensional image when an image of the motion object is displayed,at least one image of the motion object is prepared, and at least oneoperation command signal common to the whole of said motion object or asignal resulting from modifying the at least one common operationcommand signal are employed as a control signal for changing figurefeature parameters of an image representing the body components of themotion object. In these method and apparatus, it is not necessarilyrequired to use a mechanism model of said motion object.

[0019] Moreover, the present invention provides a program productcontaining a program that is read by a computer and causes the computerto produce operation signals for a motion object as set forth above.

[0020] According to the present invention, the amount of processing ofcontrol/operation data and the amount of stored data can be reduced bycontrolling predetermined patterns of body actions of the motion objectas a body action sequence. Also, movements of the motion object can beperformed along with psychological and emotional expressions byproducing the fundamental control signal as a body action sequencereflecting the psychological and emotional expressions of the motionobject.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021]FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a basic concept of anembodiment of the present invention;

[0022]FIG. 2 is a table showing examples of a fundamental control signalcorresponding to body-action emotional states;

[0023]FIG. 3 is a table showing body-group motion sequence fundamentalcontrol signals corresponding to evolution and growth stages;

[0024]FIG. 4 shows a body structure of a motion object in a basicposture;

[0025]FIG. 5 is a table showing examples of a body-group fundamentalcontrol signal corresponding to body-group motion sequences;

[0026]FIG. 6 is a table showing relationship correlation between adistribution matrix of operation signals applied to body components andcontrol of each body component of the motion object;

[0027]FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a motion object controller forproducing operation signals for a motion object image;

[0028]FIG. 8 is a conceptual view for explaining the principle ofchanging a contour shape of a motion object image that is formed byinputting an image contour by handwriting; and

[0029]FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9C are schematic views showing postures of themotion object image of FIG. 8 in different actions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0030] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be describedbelow with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram forexplaining a basic concept of an embodiment of the present invention.The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is constituted by a system comprising abody action setting unit 1, an emotion fundamental control signalgenerating unit 2, a body-group motion sequence fundamental controlsignal generating unit 3, a body group signal distributing unit 4, anoperation signal combining unit 5, a body component signal distributingunit 6, and a motion object 7.

[0031] In this embodiment, the motion object 7 is operated by producingoperation signals to execute actions of body components in accompanyingwith tonus rhythm motions of a body. A body action sequence of themotion object in accompanying with tonus rhythm is set by the bodyaction setting unit 1. More specifically, a body-action emotional statesetting unit 1A and a body action sequence setting unit 1B in the bodyaction setting unit 1 set a predetermined tonus rhythm motion (prototypeof motion) of the body and a series of body group motions, respectively,in accordance with a program.

[0032] Respective fundamental control signals representing tonus rhythmmotions and body-group motion sequences are stored, as fundamentalcontrol signal databases, in respective memories 2M, 3M in the emotionfundamental control signal generating unit 2 and the body-group motionsequence fundamental control signal generating unit 3. The emotionfundamental control signal generating unit 2 reads, out of the memory2M, an emotion fundamental control signal r(t) corresponding to a setaction's emotional state and supplies it to the body group signaldistributing unit 4. The body group signal distributing unit 4 creates asignal distribution vector {right arrow over (R)}(s) from the emotionfundamental control signal r(t). Herein, s is a variable for Laplacetransformation and a function containing s represents aLaplace-transformed function.

[0033] The body-group motion sequence fundamental control signalgenerating unit 3 reads, out of the memory 3M, a body-group motionsequence matrix B(s) corresponding to a set action of the bodycomponents and supplies it to the operation signal combining unit 5. Theoperation signal combining unit 5 produces an operation signal vectorB(s){right arrow over (R)}(s) and supplies it to the body componentsignal distributing unit 6. The body component signal distributing unit6 produces, based on a signal distribution transfer function matrixD(s), an operation signal vector P(s) commanded to the respective bodycomponents, and then supplies the operation signal vector P(s) to thecorresponding body components of the motion object 7.

[0034]FIG. 2 is a table showing examples (r1 to r10 in FIG. 2) of thefundamental control signal corresponding to body-action emotional states(basic motions, 1 to 10 in FIG. 2), which are set in consideration ofthe Kestenberg theory for body movement analysis. According to theKestenberg theory, the tonus rhythm of a muscle depends on the emotionalstate and the degree of growth. More specifically, the tonus rhythm isdivided into 10 stages and the rhythm motion in each divided stage isdescribed along with the meaning thereof. Data of the correspondencetable of FIG. 2 and the fundamental control signals is stored in thememory 2M in the emotion fundamental control signal generating unit 2.

[0035]FIG. 3 is a table showing examples of the body action sequence,which are obtained by classifying body-group motion sequences inconsideration of patterns of the body action sequence based on bodyaction expressions in different stages of evolution and growth accordingto the Bartenieff theory. According to the Bartenieff theory, patternsof body actions of an animal are fairly depending on the degree ofevolution and growth of the animal and the psychological state thereof.

[0036] In FIG. 3, a “Breath” action means an action in which the tonusof each muscle and bending/stretching of each joint are performed undersynchronization with each other, and directions of joint movements maybe at random. A “Core-Support” action means an action in which the tonusof each muscle and bending/stretching of each joint are performed all atonce, and directions of joint movements are point-symmetry about thecenter of the body. A “Spinal” action means an action in which commandsfor the tonus of each muscle and bending/stretching of each joint arepropagated along the spinal cord. An “Upper-Lower” action means anaction in which control of the tonus of each muscle andbending/stretching of each joint are performed separately in an upperhalf body and a lower half body, and commands for the tonus and thebending/stretching are uniformly executed all at once for each halfbody. A “Homo-Lateral” action means an action in which control of thetonus of each muscle and bending/stretching of each joint are performedseparately in a left half body and a right half body, and commands forthe tonus and the bending/stretching are uniformly executed all at oncefor each half body. A “Contra-Lateral” action means an action in whichcontrol of the tonus of each muscle and bending/stretching of each jointare performed separately in two sets of body halves, i.e., one setcomprising an upper right half body and a lower left half body and theother set comprising an upper left half body and a lower right halfbody, and commands for the tonus and the bending/stretching areuniformly executed all at once for each set of body halves.

[0037] The memory 3M in the body-group motion sequence fundamentalcontrol signal generating unit 3 stores not only a correspondence tableshowing the relationship between the body action sequences, any of whichis set in the body action sequence setting unit P2 depending on theevolution/growth stage (1 to 6 in FIG. 3), and fundamental controlsignals (B1 to B6), but also data B(s) of the fundamental controlsignals. While the setting of FIG. 3 shows the body action sequences setin consideration of the Bartenieff theory, body actions expressing thepsychological states, etc. may be classified into patterns set in adifferent way and may be represented by corresponding body-group motionsequences.

[0038]FIG. 4 schematically shows an example of a motion object having anexplicit mechanism model. In this example, the motion object is made upof body components connected by joints. The motion object is practicallyrealized in the form of a robot or a computer graphic image. The motionobject shown in FIG. 4 is in its basic posture, and set body actions ofthe motion object are performed by actuating respective flexor musclesand joints J1 to J12 associated with the body components. FIG. 5 is atable showing correspondence between the body-group motion sequencesignals B1 to B6 shown in FIG. 3 and body groups G1 to G6 for executingthose sequences. It is to be noted that the term “body-group motionsequence” used herein means a series of motions combined as one unit forperforming a predetermined action of the motion object.

[0039] The table of FIG. 5 is stored in the memory 3M in the body-groupmotion sequence fundamental control signal generating unit 3, and thebody-group motion sequence fundamental control signal generating unit 3outputs data in the signal form of a diagonal matrix. For example, whenthe action of the motion object is set to the “Breath” action, thefundamental control signals with a weight of 1 or −1 are generated forall the body groups G1 to G6. When it is set to the “Spinal” action, thefundamental control signals are generated for a left shoulder flexorgroup G2 and a right shoulder flexor group G3 at a time delay of Atrelative to a head flexor group G1, and are generated for a left legflexor group G4, a right leg flexor group G5 and a tail flexor group G6at a further time delay of Δt relative to the flexor groups G2 and G3.

[0040]FIG. 6 is a table showing an example of correspondence between amatrix for distribution D(s) of operation signals applied to the bodycomponents and control of each body component of the motion object. (Thesignal distribution matrix D(s) is given by expressing the table of FIG.6, as it is, in the form of a matrix). In the example of FIG. 6, twokinds of control modes are set for each of the body components, and thecontrol modes are implemented by controlling respective flexors andjoint angles associated with the body components. For example, a signalinputted to the head flexor G1 is distributed with weights of 1, 0.5,0.5, 0.5, 0.5 and 1 for the control modes of head nodding, left upperarm internal rotation, left forearm internal rotation, right upper arminternal rotation, right forearm internal rotation, and waist bending,respectively, thereby controlling the flexors and the joints of thehead, the left upper arm, the left forearm, the right upper arm, theright forearm, and the waist. The signals supplied to the plurality ofbody groups are distributed to the body components and then outputted asoperation signals for the motion object after being added to respectiveflexor and joint control signals.

[0041] A detailed description is now made of an example in which themotion object is operated by expressing the emotional state of “feelpleasure” with the tonus rhythm of the entire body and by expressing thebody action with the body action sequence of the “Spinal” action. Forrealizing the tonus rhythm expressing the emotional state of “feelpleasure”, r(t) given by the following equation (1) is read out of datastored in the memory 2M, which corresponds to 7 in FIG. 2, and isdistributed to the body groups G1 to G6 in the body group signaldistributing unit 4, thereby creating R(s) given by the followingequation (2): $\begin{matrix}{{r(t)} = {0.5\quad {\sin \left( {0.5t} \right)}}} & (1) \\{{\overset{->}{R}(s)} = {{{L\left\lbrack {r(t)} \right\rbrack}\begin{pmatrix}1 \\1 \\1 \\1 \\1 \\1\end{pmatrix}} = {\frac{0.25}{s^{2} + 0.25}\begin{pmatrix}1 \\1 \\1 \\1 \\1 \\1\end{pmatrix}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

[0042] where L[ ] means Laplace transformation.

[0043] The body action sequence corresponding to the set “Spinal” actionis read by the body-group motion sequence fundamental control signalgenerating unit 3 out of the memory 3M as the matrix representing thesequence B(s) given by the following equation (3) in the matrix form.Then, the operation signal combining unit 5 calculates B(s)R(s) andoutputs it to the body component signal distributing unit 6.$\begin{matrix}{{B(s)} = \begin{pmatrix}1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & {\exp \left( {- s} \right)} & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 0 & {\exp \left( {- s} \right)} & 0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 0 & {\exp \left( {{- 2}s} \right)} & 0 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & {\exp \left( {{- 2}s} \right)} & 0 \\0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & {\exp \left( {{- 2}s} \right)}\end{pmatrix}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

[0044] Based on the stored matrix for signal distribution D(s) shown inFIG. 6, the body component signal distributing unit 6 outputs, ascontrol mode signals for the body components, the operation signalsgiven by {right arrow over (P)}(s) =B(s) {right arrow over (R)}(s) tothe body components. The body components receive the control modesignals and control the flexors and the joint angles in response to thereceived control mode signals, thereby operating the motion object fromthe basic posture shown in FIG. 4. Thus, in accordance with the set bodyaction program, the motion object can perform various body actions whileexpressing virtual psychological states.

[0045] While, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the operation iscontrolled based on both expression of the whole body with the tonusrhythm and motion sequences on the body components, it may be controlledbased on one of the selection of tonus rhythm and the selection ofmotion sequences. Further, it is apparent that the body expression canbe also applied with tonus rhythms that are captured from real humanmotions, instead of the tonus rhythm stereotypes that are provided byKestenberg theory.

[0046]FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the present invention in whichthe motion object is a two- or three-dimensional image. The embodimentshown in FIG. 7 is constituted by a system comprising a motion objectcontroller 10, a CPU 11, an action information processing unit 12, animage information processing unit 13, a storage 14, a control programarea 15, a body action setting database area 16, an action patterndatabase area 17, a processing result history memory 18, an input unit19, a motion object image display 23, and a motion object image 24(performing the “Spinal” action in FIG. 7). The system also comprises amouse 20, a keyboard 21, and a floppy reader 22.

[0047] The motion object controller 10 is made up of the CPU 11 forexecuting a control program, and the storage 14 for storing data. Thestorage 14 includes the control program area 15 for storing the controlprogram for operating the motion object controller 10 in FIG. 7, thebody action setting database area 16 for storing the emotional stateattribute setting value (P1, e.g., 1 to 10 in FIG. 2) and the growthdegree attribute setting value (P2, e.g., 1 to 6 in FIG. 3) of themotion object, the action pattern database area 17 for storing actionpatterns, and the processing result history memory 18 for storingresults of processing of operation data. The data stored in the bodyaction setting database area 16 corresponds to the data stored in boththe body-action emotional state setting unit 1A and the body actionsequence setting unit 1B shown in FIG. 1, and the data stored in theaction pattern database area 17 corresponds to the data B(s) of thefundamental control signals stored in both the memories 2M, 3M shown inFIG. 1.

[0048] The CPU 11 is made up of the action information processing unit12 for processing action data and the image information processing unit13 for processing information to form an image. The image informationprocessing unit 13 creates a video signal from operation control signalsfor the motion object outputted from the action information processingunit 12. The motion object image display 23 is constituted by a devicefor displaying a motion image of the motion object.

[0049] An operator enters the emotional state attribute setting value(P1) and the growth degree attribute setting value (P2) of the motionobject into the motion object controller 10 through the input unit 19.

[0050] The action information processing unit 12 of the CPU 11 loads themotion object attributes sent from the input unit 19 into the bodyaction setting database area 16 and selects the action patterns (i.e.,the tonus rhythm and the body action sequence) in match with theattributes by referring to the action pattern database.

[0051] Further, the action information processing unit 12 computesmotion object posture data in accordance with the selected actionpattern while referring to the results of past computations stored inthe processing result history memory 18. Then, the action informationprocessing unit 12 outputs a computed result, as an operation signalP(t) for the motion object, to a motion object action controller and, atthe same time, stores the computed result in the processing resulthistory memory 18.

[0052] When the motion object is an image displayed on the display 23,the motion object posture data of the motion object image per frame iscomputed and outputted, as an operation signal for the motion object, tothe motion object action controller, and simultaneously a computedresult per image frame is stored in the processing result history memory18. Each time the motion object posture data per frame is computed, theaction information processing unit 12 transfers the computed motionobject posture data to the image information processing unit 13.

[0053] The image information processing unit 13 of the CPU 11 computes acolor tone of each pixel of the image for expressing the posture of themotion object in accordance with the motion object posture datatransferred from the motion information processing unit 12, and thentransfers a computed result to the motion object image display 23.

[0054] The motion object image display 23 displays the image inaccordance with image data transferred from the image informationprocessing unit 13 of the CPU 11. As a result, the motion object imageis displayed on the motion object image display 23 in accordance withthe control program depending on the entered data while performing bodyactions in accompanying with the tonus rhythm.

[0055] With reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, a description is now made of anembodiment in which body action signals are produced for a motion objectimage expressed by contours inputted by handwriting. The embodiment willbe described in connection with the case in which the motion object is acat-like motion object image.

[0056]FIG. 8 is a conceptual view for explaining the principle ofchanging a contour shape of a motion object image that is formed byinputting an image contour by handwriting. The contour of the motionobject image is formed with the aid of spline curves using drawingsoftware installed in the motion object controller shown in FIG. 7.Accordingly, the contour shape can be changed so as to represent aposture, in which a right hind leg is moved to an outward positionexpressing movement, by displacing a control point P of the splinecurve, which is a parameter for a figure feature of a body portion ofthe motion object image, to P′ through a distance T. (It is to be notedthat fixed edge nodes of the contour of the body portion are hidden.)

[0057] Also, an image representing a novel posture of the motion objectcan be produced by performing operations, such as rotation,displacement, scale-up/down and change of color tones, on the displayedcontour and figure elements of an original image. Thus, for an imageexpression of even a motion object not having an explicit mechanismmodel, images showing a series of actions of the motion object can beformed by changing visual features of the motion object image.

[0058]FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9C are schematic views for explaining changes inposture of the cat-like motion object image inputted by handwriting.FIG. 9A represents the basic posture, and FIGS. 9B and 9C representaction examples of the cat-like motion object, which are resulted bychanging the basic posture shown in FIG. 9A. More specifically, thecontours of arms and legs in the basic posture of the cat-like motionobject are drawn, as shown in FIG. 9A, with spline curves having controlpoints at distal ends of the motion object image. P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5in FIG. 9A are control points of the spline curves representing a righthind leg contour, a right foreleg contour, a left hind leg contour, aleft foreleg contour, and a tail contour, respectively. It is hereassumed that an xy-coordinate system is set as shown in FIG. 9A, andxy-coordinate values of P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5 are expressed respectivelyby (x1, y1), (x2, y2), (x3, y3), (x4, y4) and (x5, y5).

[0059] For the right hind leg, an image representing the inwardly bentleg can be formed by displacing the end point p1 in the positivedirection of x. Conversely, an image representing the outwardlystretched right hind leg can be formed by displacing the end point p1 inthe negative direction of x.

[0060] Here, a value of the x-coordinate x₁ of P1 in an original imageis assumed to be x₁₀. Also, a difference Δx₁ in x-coordinate between x₁and the original image is defined herein by the following equation (4).When Δx₁ has a large positive value, the right hind leg is inwardlybent, and when Δx₁ has a large negative value, the right hind leg isoutwardly stretched. Thus, a “bending/stretching degree T1 of the righthind leg” is defined by the following equation (5).

Δx ₁ =x ₁ −x ₁₀  (4)

T ₁ =Δx ₁ −x ₁ −x ₁₀  (5)

[0061] Similarly, bending/stretching degrees T2, T3, T4 and T5 of theleft foreleg, the right foreleg, the left hind leg, and the tail aredefined by the following equations (6). In the equations (6), x₂₀, x₃₀,x₄₀ and y₅₀ are respectively coordinate values of x₂, x₃, x₄ and y₅ inthe original image. $\begin{matrix}\left. \begin{matrix}{T_{2} = {x_{2} - x_{20}}} \\{T_{3} = {- \left( {x_{3} - x_{30}} \right)}} \\{T_{4} = {- \left( {x_{4} - x_{40}} \right)}} \\{T_{5} = {x_{5} - x_{50}}}\end{matrix} \right\} & (6)\end{matrix}$

[0062] As patterns of the body actions, the “Upper-Lower” action and the“Homo-Lateral” action are defined as follows.

[0063] The “Upper-Lower” action represents a set of motions satisfying:

T ₁ =T ₂ and T₃ =T ₄ =T ₅

[0064] The “Homo-Lateral” action represents a set of motions satisfying:

T ₁ =T ₃ , T ₂ =T ₄ and T₅=0

[0065] When the degree of growth/development of the motion object is setto the stage of 6 months after birth, the action of the motion object isproduced as the “Upper-Lower” action, and when the degree ofgrowth/development of the motion object is set to the stage of 1 yearafter birth, the action of the motion object is produced as the“Homo-Lateral” action (see FIG. 3).

[0066] In the case in which the emotional state of the motion object isset to “safety”, T =2sin(0.3t) is selected as the fundamental controlsignal T, and in the case in which the emotional state of the motionobject is set to “exciting”, T =4sin(0.9t) is selected (see FIG. 2).

[0067] For example, when the degree of growth/development of the motionobject is set to the stage of 6 months after birth, the “Upper-Lower”action is selected as the pattern of the body action, and when theemotional state of the motion object is set to “safety”,

T=2sin(0.3t)

[0068] is selected as the fundamental control signal. Therefore,displacements of the control points of the image are decided withcalculations expressed by the following equations (7) and (8), andimages representing a series of motions are produced as shown in FIG.9B. $\begin{matrix}\left. \begin{matrix}{T_{1} = {T_{2} = {2{\sin \left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}}}} \\{T_{3} = {T_{4} = {T_{5} = {2{\sin \left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}}}}}\end{matrix} \right\} & (7) \\\left. \begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{P_{1} = {\left( {x_{1},y_{1}} \right) = {\left( {{T_{1} + x_{10}},y_{10}} \right) = \left( {{{2{\sin \left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}} + x_{10}},y_{10}} \right)}}} \\{P_{2} = {\left( {x_{2},y_{2}} \right) = {\left( {{T_{2} + x_{20}},y_{2}} \right) = \left( {{{2{\sin \left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}} + x_{20}},y_{20}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \\{P_{3} = {\left( {x_{3},y_{3}} \right) = {\left( {{{- T_{3}} + x_{30}},y_{30}} \right) = \left( {{{{- 2}{\sin \left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}} + x_{30}},y_{30}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \\{P_{4} = {\left( {x_{4},y_{4}} \right) = {\left( {{{- T_{4}} + x_{40}},y_{40}} \right) = \left( {{{{- 2}{\sin \left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}} + x_{40}},y_{40}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \\{P_{5} = {\left( {x_{5},y_{5}} \right) = {\left( {x_{50},{T_{5} + y_{50}}} \right) = \left( {x_{50},{{2{\sin\left( {0.3\quad t} \right)}} + y_{50}}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \right\} & (8)\end{matrix}$

[0069] Also, for example, when the degree of growth/-development of themotion object is set to the stage of 1 year after birth, the“Homo-Lateral” action is selected as the pattern of the body action, andwhen the emotional state of the motion object is set to “exciting”,

T=4sin(0.9t)

[0070] is selected as the fundamental control signal. Therefore,displacements of the control points of the image are decided withcalculations expressed by the following equations (9) and (10), andimages representing a series of motions are produced as shown in FIG.9C. $\begin{matrix}\left. \begin{matrix}{T_{1} = {T_{3} = {4{\sin \left( {0.9\quad t} \right)}}}} \\{T_{2} = {T_{4} = {4{\sin \left( {0.9\quad t} \right)}}}} \\{T_{5} = 0}\end{matrix} \right\} & (9) \\\left. \begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{P_{1} = {\left( {x_{1},y_{1}} \right) = {\left( {{T_{1} + x_{10}},y_{10}} \right) = \left( {{{4{\sin \left( {0.9\quad t} \right)}} + x_{10}},y_{10}} \right)}}} \\{P_{2} = {\left( {x_{2},y_{2}} \right) = {\left( {{T_{2} + x_{20}},y_{2}} \right) = \left( {{{4{\sin \left( {0.9\quad t} \right)}} + x_{20}},y_{20}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \\{P_{3} = {\left( {x_{3},y_{3}} \right) = {\left( {{{- T_{3}} + x_{30}},y_{30}} \right) = \left( {{{{- 4}{\sin \left( {0.9\quad t} \right)}} + x_{30}},y_{30}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \\{P_{4} = {\left( {x_{4},y_{4}} \right) = {\left( {{{- T_{4}} + x_{40}},y_{40}} \right) = \left( {{{{- 4}{\sin \left( {0.9\quad t} \right)}} + x_{40}},y_{40}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \\{P_{5} = {\left( {x_{5},y_{5}} \right) = {\left( {x_{50},{T_{5} + y_{50}}} \right) = \left( {x_{50},y_{50}} \right)}}}\end{matrix} \right\} & (10)\end{matrix}$

[0071] Furthermore, an operation signal producing program for producingthe operation signals for the motion object can be stored in the storage14 of the motion object controller 10 shown in FIG. 7 so that theabove-described method of the present invention is executed by themotion object controller 10. The operation signal producing program isstored in the storage 14 with key-input from the keyboard, read from afloppy on which the program is recorded, or installation.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of producing operation signals tocontrol body actions of a motion object comprising a plurality of bodycomponents connected through joints with multi-degrees of freedom, themethod comprising the steps of: generating a fundamental control signalfor controlling a series of motions of body groups defined correspondingto the plural body components of said motion object; and distributingthe fundamental control signal to produce operation signals forcontrolling the respective body components.
 2. A method of producingoperation signals for a motion object according to claim 1, wherein, inresponse to a signal for setting a predetermined body action, one ormore body groups to be operated are selected.
 3. A method of producingoperation signals for a motion object according to claim 1 or 2, whereinthe operation signal is produced by combining plural kinds offundamental control signals with each other.
 4. A method of producingoperation signals for a motion object according to any one of claims 1to 3, wherein the fundamental control signal is at least one of a firstfundamental control signal representing tonus rhythm of the whole bodyof said motion object and a second fundamental control signalrepresenting selection of predetermined transfer function fordistribution of motion over the body components of said motion object.5. A method of producing operation signals for a motion object accordingto claim 1, wherein said first fundamental control signal representingthe tonus rhythm is an oscillating numerical value signal, and saidsecond fundamental control signal representing selection of thepredetermined transfer function for distribution of motion over the bodycomponents of said motion object is a signal of a body-group motionsequence, said first fundamental control signal and said secondfundamental control signal being combined with each other anddistributed at a distribution ratio in accordance with the body-groupmotion sequence, whereby the operation signals are outputted to therespective body components.
 6. A method of producing operation signalsfor a motion object according to claim 5, wherein said secondfundamental control signal is a predetermined body-group motion sequencesignal set depending on a degree of imaginary evolution or imaginarygrowth of said motion object in a role of a living thing andcorresponding to a imaginary psychological state of said motion object.7. A method of producing operation signals for a motion object, themethod comprising the steps of: for controlling actions of a motionobject presented as a two- or three-dimensional image, preparing atleast one image of said motion object, creating an image having visualfeatures changed from visual features of said one image, and providing aseries of action images of said motion object to a display; andemploying, as a control signal for changing figure feature parameters ofan image, at least one operation command signal common to the whole ofsaid motion object or a signal resulting from synthesizing the at leastone common operation command signal by a modification signal.
 8. Anapparatus for producing operation signals to control body actions of amotion object comprising a plurality of body components withmulti-degrees of freedom connected through joints, the apparatuscomprising: body action setting means for setting data of command onselection of predetermined body actions; fundamental control signalgenerating means for generating a fundamental control signal to performthe predetermined body action with body groups defined corresponding tothe plural body components of said motion object; and distributing meansfor distributing the fundamental control signal at a distribution ratiodepending on the body action corresponding to a setting signal from saidbody action setting means, thereby producing signals to control therespective body components.
 9. An apparatus for producing operationsignals for a motion object according to claim 8, wherein saidfundamental control signal generating means includes a memory storing aplurality of fundamental control signals corresponding to body actionsignals set in response to respective setting signals from said bodyaction setting means, and serves as means for reading and outputting thefundamental control signal corresponding to the set body action signal.10. An apparatus for producing operation signals for a motion objectaccording to claim 8 or 9, wherein said distributing means includes amemory storing distribution ratios of respective signals for controllingthe body components related to body group motions for performing a setbody action, and serves as means for reading the distribution ratiocorresponding to the set body action signal and distributing thefundamental control signal to the respective body components.
 11. Anapparatus for producing operation signals for a motion object, theapparatus comprising: first body action setting means for setting atleast one parameter representing imaginary emotion of said motionobject; second body action setting means for setting at least oneparameter representing imaginary state of development of said motionobject; first fundamental control signal generating means for receivinga setting signal from said first body action setting means andgenerating a corresponding oscillating numerical value signal; means fordistributing the first fundamental control signal to body groups; secondfundamental control signal generating means for receiving a settingsignal from said second body action setting means and generating asecond fundamental control signal representing a body-group motionsequence to perform a corresponding action; means for combining saidfirst fundamental control signal and said second fundamental controlsignal distributed to the body groups; and distributing means fordistributing a combined fundamental control signal to body componentsrelated to an action set by said second body action setting means at acorresponding distribution transfer function of said second fundamentalcontrol signal.
 12. An apparatus for producing operation signals for amotion object according to claim 11, wherein said first fundamentalcontrol signal is a signal in the form of a trigonometric wave,triangular wave or random-walk drift wave, or a signal resulting frommultiplying any of those waves by an appropriate time function.
 13. Anapparatus for producing operation signals for a motion object accordingto claim 11 or 12, wherein said second fundamental control signal is apredetermined body-group motion sequence signal for setting a bodyaction determined depending on a degree of imaginary evolution orimaginary growth of said motion object.
 14. An apparatus for producingoperation signals for a motion object according to any one of claims 11to 13, wherein said second fundamental control signal is a predeterminedbody-group motion sequence signal for setting one of “Breath”,“Core-Support”, “Spinal”, “Upper-Lower”, “Homo-Lateral”, and“Contra-Lateral” actions based on classifications of action patternsaccording to the Bartenieff theory.
 15. An apparatus for producingoperation signals for a motion object according to any one of claims 11to 14, wherein the distribution set by said distributing means isexpressed by a function in the time domain.
 16. An apparatus forproducing operation signals for a motion object, the apparatuscomprising a CPU and a storage, said storage storing an action settingdatabase, an action pattern database, and processing result historydata, said CPU including an action information processing unit forexecuting the steps of: for controlling actions of said motion objectpresented as a two- or three-dimensional image, preparing at least oneimage of said motion object, creating an image having visual featureschanged from visual features of said one image, and storing the createdimage as the processing result history data; and employing, as a controlsignal for changing figure feature parameters of an image, at least oneoperation command signal common to the whole of said motion object or asignal resulting from multiplying the at least one common operationcommand signal by a modification signal, said CPU further including animage information processing unit for creating and outputting a videoimage to present an image on a display.
 17. A program product containinga program for producing operation signals for a motion object, theprogram being read by a computer and causing the computer to functionas: means for generating a fundamental control signal for controlling aseries of motions of body groups defined corresponding to plural bodycomponents of a motion object; and means for distributing thefundamental control signal to produce operation signals for controllingthe respective body components.
 18. A program product for producingoperation signals for a motion object according to claim 17, wherein afirst fundamental control signal representing tonus rhythm is anoscillating numerical value signal, and a second fundamental controlsignal representing predetermined distributions of motion data over thebody components of said motion object is a signal of a body-group motionsequence, said first fundamental control signal and said secondfundamental control signal being combined with each other anddistributed through numerical process in accordance with the body-groupmotion sequence.
 19. A program product for producing operation signalsfor a motion object, the program being read by a computer and causingthe computer to function as: means for preparing at least one image ofsaid motion object; means for creating an image having figure featureparameters changed from figure feature parameters of said one image, andstoring the created image as processing result history data; means forcreating one operation command signal common to the whole of said motionobject or a signal resulting from modifying the one common operationcommand signal; means for numerical process of those signals andcreating a modified signal; and means for outputting the combined signalas a video signal.